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X/ 


A IIOI’EI'UL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAlIiS. 




rRKACIIED AT 


THE SAILOKS’ SNUG IIARBOK, 


Staten Island, Sept. 11, 1864, 


BY 


EEV. OHAELES J. JONES, 

>1 ’ 

CIIA PLAIN. 


^PubHs^clj bg Bequest. 


NEW YORK: 

EDWARD 0. JENKINS, PRINTER, 
20 North Willi aai Street. 

1 8 6 4 . 





Staten Island, September 26, 1864. 

Rev. Chas. J. Jones, — 

Dear Sir , — The undersigned having heard, with much pleasure, and we 
trust also with profit, your Thanksgiving Sermon of Sunday, Sept. 11th, 
and believing that it would, if extensively read, be productive of good, 
respectfully request that you will provide us with a copy for publication. 

W e are, very respectfully, yours, 

AUGUSTUS DE PEYSTER, 

S. V. R. BOGERT, 

JAMES PORTER, 

WILLIAM SNEDEKER, 

REED BENEDICT, 

EDWARD C. BADEAU, 
SAMUEL RAYNOR, 

JAMES HILLYER. 


Sailors* Snug Harbor, Staten Island, New York, 

September 27, 1864. 

Messrs. De Peyster, Bogert, Porter, and others. 

Gentlemen , — The Sermon to which you listened, and a copy of which you 
request for publication, was prepared simply and solely for the encourage- 
ment of my own immediate congregation, and without the remotest idea of 
its ever being given to the Press. But if you think that it will do good to 
publish it, I yield to your judgment, and cheerfull}’ accede to your wishes. 
If but one timid and fearful soul shall be comforted and encouraged thereby, 
then my object is attained, and my labor will not have been “ in vain in the 
Lord.’* 

Very respectfully yours. 


CHAS. J. JONES. 



P 


“ The Lord hath done great things for us ; uhereof we are 
glad.” — P salm cxxvi. 3. 

The proclamation of the President of the United 
States, just issued, calling for a day of National 
Thanksgiving for recent victories at Mobile and At- 
lanta, must meet with the sincere approbation of 
every true lover of his country. It strikes a chord in 
the national heart, the vibrations of which will be 
felt from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the 
Penobscot to the Rio Grande. Every patriot heart 
will glow with new tires of devotion to our fatherland. 
Every pulse will thrill with new emotions, as the tid- 
ings of our victories and the call for thanksgivings 
are borne cn the lightning’s wing throughout the 
length and breadth of our land. 

Tliere are always, in every community, some timid, 
fearful, doubting souls, who are found sitting in the 
shadow of events, who seldom bask in the grateful 
sunshine of hope, and who, consequently, are de- 
pressed by delays and discouraged by anticipated 
reverses. But even these dark-visioned and de- 
sponding ones will not fail to come forth on an occa- 
sion like this, to enjoy the brilliancy of these passing 
events and to exult in these newly excited hopes. 

In the mixed company before me to-day, there are 
two classes, viz. : Those who are radiant with hope 
and those who are still in doubt whether our joy may 
not be premature; whether reverses may not yet 
come and compel us to forego the realization of the 
pleasure with which we have anticipated the final 
and the rapidly approaching success to our arms, 
which shall bring the rebels to their knees at the 
feet of the loyal defenders of our blood-bought pos- 
sessions. To such persons all joy seems out of place 
if it be the result only of successes that are not ulti- 




A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


mate or final. It may not be amiss, therefore, to 
glance at a few of the features of our present struggle, 
which will serve to corroborate and confirm the opin- 
ion of those who are hopeful and to comfort those 
who are timid and fearful as to the final result of this 
armed and treasonable effort to overthrow the benign 
institutions of this Government. 

It may be suggested that my classification of opin- 
ions is not complete, not logical, does not present all 
the elements in the strife, and that there are some 
who are not included in either of the classes referred 
to ; that there are in this land, and in the North too, 
those who are not only not radiant with hope of a 
favorable termination of our armed effort to restore 
peace, and who yet are not of those who are timidly, 
though fearfully, waiting for the same blessed result. 
There are those who neither hope for, nor expect, nor 
desire any termination to the strife that will not bring 
disaster to our arms and desolation to our homes, as 
well as a return of millions of the oppressed— because 
their skin is of a duskier hue than their own — to hope- 
less bondage. I admit that we have some, even in 
the North, who would gloat over the ruin of the 
country they cannot rule, who are base enough to 
surrender all we have gained at so fearful a-sacrifice 
of blood and treasure, and to kiss the very feet of the 
traitorous crew who have brought our ship of state 
into these troubled waters. I ought also to state, in 
justice to all, that the good and the true of both the 
great political parties do not countenance these trait- 
ors, these Catalines and Arnolds in disguise. 

But I will not so far insult this audience as to sup- 
pose that one such character is listening to me to-day. 
I will therefore occupy the time allotted to this ser- 
vice in presenting to you, as cause for thanksgiving 
to God, who is the Governor among the nations, some 
of the “ great things” he has “ done for us,” and 
“ whereof we are glad.” 

The line of thought I propose to follow is set forth 
in the words of the text, which contains — 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


5 


I. The Fact — “The Lord (lleb. Jehovah) hath done 

GREAT THINGS FOR US,” aiul 

II. The Fxi’ression of Joy which it suggests — 

“ We are glad.” 

I. The Fact — “The Lord hath done great things 
for us:” 

Among the “ great things” that God has “ done for 
us,” I mention first : 

(1.) The sprit of loyalty and patriotism with wliich 
he has animated our ])eople, the basis of which is an 
underlving trust in the God of battles, and a con- 
sciousness that our cause is right. 

The first shot lired at h'ort Sumter was intended to 
“ tire the Southern heart,” and it accomplished its 
purpose. ILit it did more than the consjiirators 
wished or intended — their “ vaulting ambition over- 
leaped itself;” it tired also the Northern heart. It 
kindled the tiros ot a holy i)atriotism. It fanned into 
“a most vehement tlame” the embers of a pure 
loyalty, which the South conceived to be e.xtinct, 
because long covered up or concealed by the engross- 
ing cares of commercial life. The South took the 
torch of a partizan zeal to light her co-conspirators to 
their work of slaughter and death. Iliit little did 
they think that they were lighting at the same time 
beacon-tires to rally the free sons of the North to the 
protection of their sacred rights, and to the contlict 
in which the liberties of the laboring classes, the so- 
called “mudsills’* of the North, were to be secured, 
and the fetters of the slave to be broken as a neces- 
sary consequence. Little did they think that they 
were 

“ But teaching 

Bloody instructions, which being taught, return 

To plague the inventor.” 

And that “ even-handed justice” would 

“ Commend the ingredients of their poisoned chalice 

To their own lips.” 

The North — the nation, was unprepared for war. ij 


6 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


\ And was guileless of any cause to produce it. They V 

I therefore looked on with incredulity, while the chiv- I 

airy of South Carolina were planting their batteries 
against the starving garrison of Sumter. We did not 
give the traitors credit for the madness that possessed 
them. Nor did they give the North credit for any 
aspiiations that were not limited bv the periphery of 
the “ almighty dollar.” Both parties were therefore 
deceived in their estimate of each other. But the 
slurnber of false security on our part once broken, 
the North once awake, and the South found, like the 
student in the Geraian drama, that they had raised a 
devil that all their black incantations could not lay • 
that they had kindled an enthusiasm that all the 
waters ot opposition, that the red torrent of war, 
could never extinguish, as they already know to their 
cost. now clear that all their calculations have 
* nation has displayed a resistless energy 

which has proved too much for Southern treachery 
and Southern valor on the one hand, and for British 
“ neutrality” on the other. Americans will hereafter 
speak of the neutrality of Great Britain as the Romans 
were wont to speak of Punic faith. 

It was indeed a “ great thing for us,” that the toc- 
sin of war was not smothered or hushed, by the busy 
hum of the mart, the manufactory, and the mill. The 
alacrity, the spontaneity, with which our people have 
responded to the call of the Executive for men and 
fot money, has scarcely been equaled in any country 
on the globe; and that, for the very reason, that no 
nation on earth has ever possessed such resources in 
the hands of the people, while they had such precious, 
such priceless interests at stake. No nation ever 
battled for so noble, so free, so glorious an inheri- 
tance. No nation ever possessed — since the Jews 
! spurned the Theocracy and demanded for themselves | 
j a king such a foundation for national greatness and v'l 
national usefulness, such adaptedness to the mighty I 
) work before it, or such institutions at which to culti- 5 
vate its native powers. Rarely have such mighty in- 



A 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIP 



terests been at stake, as tliosefor which we are now con- 
tending; and lienee, the earnest, the enthusiastic, the 
burning patriotism which animates this great people. 
These are not idle boasts. The record is before us. 
Calls for seventy-five thousand, forty-two thousand, 
three hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, 
ninety thousand, five hundred thousand, three hun- 
dred thousand, and live hundred thousand men, have 
followed each other in succession, until over two 
millions have been called to the field ; and these calls 
have been res])onded to with cheerfulness. At one 
time (July 10, 1861), Congress gave the President 
authority to call out five hundred ihousand men, and 
voted $500,000,000 for the expense of the war ; and in 
a few days afterward (on the 16th of the same month), 
authorized the President to call out five hundred 
thousand more men. Put the liberality of Congress 
in voting supplies, has been emulated by the munifi- 
cence of States, counties, municipalities, and jirivate 
individuals. In one day, ^lay 7, 1S61, the voluntary 
and patriotic contributions of the people of the North, 
for the purpose of carrying on the war, amounted to 
$23,250,000. The Sanitary Commission, the Christian 
Commission, the Supervisors of Recruiting and Kn- 
listments have all drawn upon the loyal people of the 
North, to the value of hundreds of millions of dol- 
lars;* and those drafts have all been honored at 
sight. And what means all this y lias this liberality, 
this self-denying patr iotism no signification V It has. 
It means that this people know their rights— know 
the value of theii’ privileges, and “ knowing, dare 
maintain them.” That they know the priceless value 
of their liberties, and of their institutions, and that 
they ai*e willing to pay for them. It means that they 
know the glory that attaches to the ideas of which 
our starry tlag is the symbol. They mean that“oW 
glory'' shall be flung to the breeze of heaven, and 


♦ The ascertained amount of such donations, up to Febru- 
ary 1, 1864, is $211,786,616. 


8 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


shall yet float proudly over every foot of soil that has 
ever owed it allegiance. Yes, we too, mean it ! You 
and I mean it, and share in the enthusiastic encomi- 
ums on our flag, with the author of those beautiful 
lines : 


“ God bless our star-gemmed banner, shake its folds 
out to the breeze. 

From church, from fort, from housetop, o’er the city, 
on the seas ; 

The die is cast, the storm at last has broken in its 
might ; 

Unfurl the starry banner, and may God defend the 
right. 


“ Would to God it waved above us, with a foreign foe 
to quell, 

Not o’er brother faced to brother, urging steel, and 
shot, and shell. 

But no more the choice is left us, for our friendly 
hand they spurn ; 

We can only meet as foeman — sad, but resolute and 
stern. 

“ Father — dash aside the tear-drop, let thy proud boy 
go his way ; 

Mother — twine thine arms about him, and bless thy 
son this day. 

Sister — weep, but yet look proudly, ’tis a time to do 
or die ; 

Maiden— clasp thy lover tenderly, as he whispers thee 
good-by ! 


“ Onward, onward to the battle ! who can doubt which 
side shall win ? 

Right and might both guide our squadrons, and the 
steadfast hearts within ; 

Shall the men who never quailed before, now falter 
in the field ; 

Or the men who Tought at Bunker Hill be ever made 
to yield ? 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


9 


“ Then bless our banner, God of Ilosts ! watch o’er 
each starry fold ; 

’Tis Freedom’s standard, tried and proved on many 
a held of old ; 

And Thou, who long hast blessed us, now bless us 
yet again ; 

And crown our cause with victory, and keep our flag 
from stain ! II. E. T.” 


(2.) God has done “ great things for us” also, in 
THE successes II E HAS VOUCHSAFED TO OUR ARMS. 

There are those (gloomy souls !) who ever see the 
dark side only, who are always bemoaning the condi- 
tion of things, on the ground of what they call, our 
want of success. They exclaim against the imbecility 
of the President, and the inefliciency of our generals. 
They say, “ we have been lighting for four years, and 
now, are no nearer the end than when we begun. To 
such persons, every cam])aign is a failure that does not 
work out all its legitimate and ultimate results, just 
at the precise moment when they are expecting a 
victory to our arms. Hence, even the gains on our 
part have been considered as losses, even up to the 
very moment when the plans of our generals and 
commanders have culminated in victory. Now, what 
is the truth in this matter? If we are honest we 
can attbrd to look the facts in the face. What then 
are the facts ? What territory was in our possession 
immediately after the rebellion was inaugurated? 
And what is in our possession now? At the begin- 
ning of this struggle Kentucky declared herself neu- 
tral, Missouri and Maryland were doubtful. South 
Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkan- 
sas, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and 
Florida threw off their allegiance (in many cases, the 
States were declared in secession, in opposition to the 
\ will of the people, I will admit). All these States o 
I were then under the control of armed traitors, who I 
^ robbed the Government they had sworn to support, j 
A of money and arms for the carrying out of their 


10 A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


nefarious purposes. But what is the condition of 
things now? Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland (as 
States), are loyal ; important parts of Arkansas, of 
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Geor- 
gia, North and South Carolina, a large part of Vir- 
ginia, and all of Tennessee, are already in our hands. 
The Mississippi is opened from the Falls of St. An- 
thony to the Gulf of Mexico. The whole Southern 
coast, for thousands of miles, is under a rigid blockade. 
Charleston and Sav^annah are virtually sealed up; 
while New Orleans and Mobile Bay, with its forts and 
defenses, are occupied by our forces. In the words of 
another: “We have not failed ; on the contrary, we 
have fought bravely, and conquered splendidly ; we 
can point to such trophies as few wars can equal, and 
none surpass. Besides defending with unusual vigi- 
lance and completeness, two thousand miles of fron- 
tier; we have taken from the enemy’s of the Union, 
by valor and generalship, thirty complete and 
thoroughly furnished fortresses ; we have captured 
over two thousand cannon ; we have reconquered, and 
now hold nearly four thousand miles of navigable 
river courses ; we have taken ten of the enemy’s 
principal cities, three of them capitals of states ; in 
thirty days last summer, we captured sixty thousand 
prisoners; we have penetrated more than three hun- 
dred miles into the territory claimed by the enemy ; 
we have cut that territory into strips, leaving his 
armies without effectual communication with each 
other; the main operations and interests of the war, 
which were latelv concentrated about Baltimore, Pa- 
ducah, and St. Louis, have been transferred, by our 
steady and constant advance, to the narrow limits of 
the seaboard slave States; we hold every harbor but 
one, of a coast six thousand miles long. And what- 
ever we have taken we hold ; w’e have never turned 
back or given up that which we once fairly possessed. 
And yet, in the face of all these brilliant successes 
and kupendous victories, it is alleged that we have 
accomplished nothing.” 

— 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 11 


It is but a short time ago that the Confederate papers 
boasted tliat “ Hood was as safe at Atlanta as Lee at 
Riclimond,” and yet Hood has been driven out of the 
gate city, and Atlanta, in the words of the gallant 
Sherman, “is ours and fairlv won.” Nor must we 
forget the sacrifices and the noble deeds of the glori- 
ous Army of the Potomac. Under our “ Unconditional 
Surrender Grant,” it has fought its way from the fords 
of the Rapidan to the banks of the Appomattox, and 
already it has its “hands on the throat of the rebel- 
lion and its knees upon the neck of the prostrate form 
of treason.” It is too late in the day now to talk of 
failure. God has done great things for us. But “ there 
remaUietk yet very muck land to he possessed.'^ This good 
work must go on therefore. We have no alternative 
but base submission. “ It is the duty, the solemn duty, 
THE RELIGIOUS DUTY of the American people to crush 
out this rebellion. This duty we owe to ourselves; 
to the whole continent; to civilization and humanity; 
to the world and the God who made it. He has pro- 
nounced the sentence of its damnation and calls us to 
the painful duty of its execution. Not to wage war 
upon the South, not to conquer the South, has He given 
us an order. Not at all. But he has put into our 
hands for execution, with the sign-manual of the Great 
King affixed thereto, the death warrant of treason and 
rebellion. And woe to this nation, woe be to its Gov- 
ernment, if they bear in vain the sword which God 
has put into their hands for the punishment of evil 
doers, and the praise of them that do well. Ours is a 
conflict solely on the defensive. And the moment 
the weapons of rebellion are cast down, the conflict is 
ended. Justice, on her dread tribunal, will have a few 
questions of felony to decide, but the muflled drum 
that follows treason to the grave, will die away in the 
busy hum of a united nation’s peaceful pursuks.”* 

We have already reached the beginning of the end. 
Let us be true to ourselves ; true to our bVave soldiers 


* Extract from a sermon by Rev. George Junkin, E. D. 




A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


and sailors now engaged in the strife; true to our 
country and true to our God, before whom we have 

covenanted to be loyal, and the issue cannot lone be 
delayed. ° 

This, then, is a time for rejoicing, a time to express 
thanksgiving to God. Yet there are some 
who do not joy at the prospect; who have no thanks 
to give for their nation’s successes over the forces of 
treason. Let us leave such to their own gloomy fore- 
bodings, and their own unnatural fears; but let us re- 
member that Jehovah has done great things for us 
and it is our duty, as it is our privilege, to be glad. ^ 

(3.) The honor God has put upon us in making us 
the instruments in his hands of transmitlino- to our 
posterity a land freed from the withering ljurse of 
human bondage, is another “ great thing’’ that God 
has done for us. 


This, you will admit, is no inconsiderable boon. 
All who ha\e kept their eyes and their ears open of 
late } ears, know that slavery has been the cause of all 
our political troubles. For this, compromises were 

to, by the North, and violated by 
the South. For this the Fugitive Slave Law — that 
monster of modern legislation — was enacted, and 
N 01 them free men were made the slave-catchers of 
the South. For this the Democratic Convention was 
divided at Charleston, S. C., in 1860, and for this the 
leading spirits of that Convention rushed into rebel- 
lion ; and foi the establishing of a confederacy on the 
corner-stone of human bondage, has this war been in- 
augurated and rivers of blood been shed. Will it not 
be a “ great thing for us,” then, if God shall permit us 
to transmit this good land to our posterity freed from 
this exciting course of strife ? It is a great thinsf,” 
too, that God is using us for the purpose of securmo- 
true^ libel ty and the rights of man to all future gen- 
erations in all the earth. The struggle now goino^ on 
in this land will be decided here— will never need be 
repeated. It is a struggle for the right of free labor. 

1 he distinction of color is not an essential element. 



J~/ 


1 A 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFF 



The question, the vital question, is whether capital 
shall own labor, or whether the laborer, black or 
white, shall own himself and have a l iirht to the labor 
of his own hands. The masses of the Old World seem 
to understand this. The workingmen of the nianu- 
facturinfi: districts in England seem to be conscious of 
this. The poor and down-trodden of Ireland know 
this; the laboring population of Germany know this; 
and hence the immense immigration of nearly a thou- 
sand a day that has been going on — an immigration 
unparalleled in the history of the world, if we consider 
that they who come leave a land of peace behind them 
to come to a land of strife. They rush into the very 
jaws of this rebellion, which they have sagacity enough 
to see^ despite the protestations of their own aristo- 
cratic classes, will issue in blessings to the poor man, 
to the laborer of everv land. We are entrusted with 
the dearest interests of humanity, with the solution 
of the grandest problem that ever inspired the hopes 
or engaged the attention of man. It is the problem 
of his capacity for self-government. And if we fail, 
which we shall do most signally, if we do not suppress 
this rebellion, man’s emancipation from t 3 ’ranny and 
oppression, and human liberty and self-government 
are failures.”* 

Another great thing” also, in my estimation, 
God is doing for us. lie is establishing by us the 
fact, against despots and tyrants everywhere, that 
the peo{)le can govern themselves. He is here test- 
ing the practicability of entrusting to the people the 
supreme ruling authority. The experiment is in pro- 
gression under the most favorable circumstances. If 
it fail, it will probably be the last, and man must fall 
back upon despotisms, God will give us a king, as 
of old, to punish us. But let us have faith ; this trial 
t will probably be the last. Out of it the Republic will 
I emerge as gold tried in the 6re. The eagle shall yet 

y * Extract of a letter from Col. Jaquess to G^^n. Garfield, 
-y May 19, 18653. 





14 A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, 


take a loftier flight; the stripes shall yet flout the 
pale blue sky; and the stars shall shine brighter and 
brighter until they merge in the splendors of millen- 
nial glory, when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise 
with healing in his wings.”* 

We are to prove that a government of the people 
can subdue its enemies within as well as without; 
that it can cope with rebellion and punish treason ; 
that it can create immense armies and invincible 
navies, for offense or defense, quite as readily as those 
nations which are governed by what they call “ the 
Divine right of kings ;” that a republican form of 
government is as well adapted to all the exigencies 
of national existence and national culture, as is a 
despotism, an empire, or even a limited and constitu- 
tional monarchy. Is not this fact patent to-day ? 
Have we not improvised a navy, as powerful, as well 
adapted to all practical purposes to which war ships 
are applied, as any of the navies of the Old World ? 
Let the passage of the Mississippi and Mobile forts 
give the answer. In those terriflc conflicts, our iron- 
clads and our wooden ships, manned with iron-hearted 
and lion-hearted men, proved themselves superior to 
scientifically constructed fortifications on the shore 
and the rebel iron-clads on the sea. Let them, I say, 
give the answer. Again, at the beginning of our war, 
we had about forty men of war in active service, em- 
ploying less than seven thousand men. England had 
two hundred and fourteen, and France about one 
hundred and sixteen. Lord Paget stated in the Brit- 
ish Parliament, in 1862, that the Admiralty proposed 
to keep two hundred vessels of the Royal Navy on active 
service, of which about one hundred would be cruizing 
abroad. To-day we have in squadrons a navy of three 
hundred and eighty-two vessels actively cruizing, or 
one hundred and eighty more than in the navy of 
Great Britain. Our whole navy consistsf of 588 ves- 


* Sermon of Rev. George Junkin, D. D. 
t The Report of the Secretary of the Navy up to Novem- 

— . . 


A HOrEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFATRS. 1 5 ’5' 


sels (of wliich 75 are iron-clad), cariying over 50,000 ' 
men, 4,443 guns, and measuring 407,007 tons. The whole 
number of vessels of-vvar afloat in the navy of Great 
llritain is 522, and 20 building, making a total of 542, 

40 less in number than the navy of tlie United States. 
Here then is a navy, as large as the entire navy of 
Great Britain, created within three years by the 
energy and untiring devotion of a man, who by some 
has been sneeringly called “Mrs. Welles.’’ These 
facts are his noblest eulogy. As an evidence of the 
etliciency of our navy, showing that it is no holiday 
fleet, let it be remembered that, in addition to their 
splendid achievements at Ilatteras, Port Royal, Roan- j 
oke, Newbern, Fort Henry, Fort Donnelson, Aikansas 
I^ost, Vicksburg, Port Hudson and New Orleans, 
Uncle Abraham’s “ web feet” have recently taken 1 
Mobile Bay and its defenses, and the entire Confed- 
erate Navy, with the famous iron-clad ram Ten- 
nessee. They have also sunk the notorious Alabama 
off Cherbourg in a fair fight, and would have taken 
the traitor Semmes if his English allies had not cov- 
ered him with a tarpaulin and stolen him away. They 
have also taken the pirate Georgia, and have taken 
or destroyed, either while running the blockade or in 
actual war, within the space of two years and five 
months (from May, 18(31, to October 31, 18<33), 25 
ships, 10 brigs, 46 steamers, 20 barques, 43l schoon- 
ers, 08 sloops, 3 yachts, 3 pilot boats, 5 rams, 2 iron- 
clads, and 116 launches, making a grand total of 776 
vessels captured by our navy, and yet the Secretary 
is accused of being asleep. The question may arise, 
What would he have done had he been awake? 



her 80, 1863, gives the following exhibit of our naval force, 
including vessels now in the process of construction : Iron- 
clad steamers, coast service, 46 ; iron-clad steamers, inland, 
20; side-wheel steamers, 2U8 ; screw steamers, 198; sailing 
vessels, 112; total, 588. The increase of the navy for 1861 
would swell this number by at least about 150 vessels. The 
increase of 1868 was 161 vessels, exclusive of all that we 
lost. 


16 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


While we give all honor to Farragut and Foote, to 
Dahlgren and Dupont, and the brave tars under 
them, let us not forget the scientific skill and prac- 
tical ability of our noble Erricson ; nor the energy, 
the zeal, the organization, and the self-denying per- 
sistency in the good work of the head of the Navy 
Department, by which such victories were made pos- 
sible. Let us give the meed of praise to our naval 
heroes and to our iron-hearted tars ; but let us also 
remember to do honor to the patriotism and the inde- 
fatigable exertion of Secretary Welles, a man whom 
posterity will delight to honor, and whose praises 
will be sung bv thousands when all his detractors are 
dead and their very names forgotten. Are not all 
these '‘'•great things” which “the Lord has done for 
us ?” And do we not well to “ be gladf' 

(4.) Another “ great thing” that the Lord has 
done for this nation, is the providing her with such 
IMMENSE RESOURCES as adapt her to the struggle in 
which she is engaged. 

A great outcry has been raised by the enemies of 
the Government concerning our enormous war debt, 
as if it were the great leak through the agency of 
wdiich the ship of state must go down in this terrible 
financial storm. This is a vital point. Money is the 
sinew of war. Let us look at what "we owe, and 
what we have to pay it with. It is the duty of an 
honest nation, as it is of an honest merchant, to see 
that its liabilities do not outrun its assets ; that it 
does not go into debt beyond its ability to pay. And 
here, too, as in all things else, it will be found that this 
nation is equal to her enormous task. Our ability in 
this matter may be shown by a few figures, which, as 
the proverb has it, “cannot lie,” and will, perhaps, 
be more striking if presented in the way of contrast. 

In 1816 the debt of Great Britain was $4,250,000,000, 
equal to forty per cent, of the property on which she 
relied to pay the debt. In forty-two years — say from 
1816 to 1858 — by the increase of her national wealth, 
it was reduced to thirteen per cent., while the debt 
really was but $300,000,000 less than in 1816. \ 


A IIOriiFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 17 


\ 111 1816 the debt of the United States was equal to 

I seven per cent, of her entire capital. Hut such was 
the increase of our national wealth, that in 1860 that 
debt amounted to less than nine-tenths of one per 
cent. In other words, the whole debt of the United 
Stales ill 1816, could have been paid in 1860 with nine 
mills on the dollar of our actual wealth. 

If our war should close on us with a debt of 
$3,000,000,000 (and it would require two and a half 
years more of war, at the current rate of expense, to 
bring it to that figure), the interest of that sum at five 
per cent., which is beyond the present average,* would 
be $150,000,000, and if our wealth, or national re- 
sources, increase in the future as they have done in the 
ten years from 18')0 to 1860, viz., at one hundred and 
thirty per cent, (the true figures are 120.7 percent.), to 
say nothing of the inci’ease for the year 1863, which 
was thirty per cent., amounting to $3,710,000,000, then 
our ability to pay, i. e., our assets, or national capital, 
will be represented, in round numbers, in such figures 
as these : In 1864, $20,000,000,000 (the actual sum is 
$21,300,000,000 for the whole country). In 1874, it 
would stand $46,000,000,000. In 188t, when our five- 
twenties become due, it would be $107,000,000,000. 
In 1894, $246,000,000,000; and in 1904, when our ten- 
forties are to be redeemed, it would reach the astound 
ing sum of $566,000,000,000. Of which, two-thirds of 
one per cent, would pay the entire ]>rincipal of the 
debt, and the interest of it at $150,000,000 a year for 
live years. 

Again, when the debt of Great Hritain was $4,250,- 
000,000, her population was but 19,000,000, and her 
foreign commerce amounted to $450,000,000 per an- 
num. Our population to-day, with only a little more 
than half that amount of debt, is 35,000,000, and our 
( foreign commerce near $800,000,000. If, therefore, 
\ Great liritain, with 16,000,000 less of population, and 

y * The average rate of interest on our whole indebtedness 
is Jess than four per cent. 









18 


A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


$350,000,000 per annum less of foreign commerce, has 
borne up, in a state of solvency, under a debt of 
$4,250,000,000, why should we, with so much larger 
resources, and so much greater population, doubt of 
our ability to pay all we owe? On this subject there 
can be no reasonable question. But let us take yet 
another view of our resources, as a basis on which 
our national debt rests. The following facts I find to 
my band in the “Phrenological Magazine” — they are 
worthy of our thoughtful consideration : 

“ Our territory is larger than all Europe. It is 
sixty times that of England proper; thirty times that 
of England, Ireland, and Scotland; eight times that 
of France; fifteen times that of lb ussia ; and twenty 
times that of Germany. 

“ Should this country ever reach the dense popula- 
tion of England, the United States will have twelve 
hundred millions of Americans under its banner; but 
should it only reach that of Massachusetts in 18G0, it 
will be five hundred millions of population. 

“ We have now more miles of railroad and more 
miles of telegraph than all the world besides. 

“ We have an inland navigation of 122,000 miles. 
More than one half is navigated by steam ; and our 
interior steam tonnage is greater than the interior 
steam tonnage of all the rest of the world. 

“ We have more timber, and a greater variety, than 
all Europe. More hydraulic power; more raw ma- 
terial for manufactures. 

“ One-half of the gold and silver product of the 
world is taken from the mines of the United States. 
This has been the case for the past fifteen years. The 
Secretary of the Interior estimates the future annual 
product of the mines at one hundred millions ; and 
when the Pacific Railroad is opened, the annual pro- 
duct will be one hundred and fifty millions. 

“ Other portions of the world — in fact, the whole 
world, falls behind us in mineral dejiosits of iron, coal, 
copper, lead, quicksilver, etc. 

“ Our bonded debt is the strongest and best backed 


J“// 



HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


19 


bond ever offered to a lendinjjj people. There is no 
such a property on the face of the earth as this coun- 
try to base a debt upon. There is no such people as 
the Americans to develop resources and amass wealth ; 
and when we take into consideration that the annual 
product of gold and silver in our day is eight times 
what it was at the time the British debt was made — 
and hence a debt of eight millions now is not more 
than one million was then, and as our debt is but half 
that of Great Britain, where is the ground for croak- 
ing?” 

Now, who, I ask, with this exposition of our assets, 
as compared with our liabilities, will ever again allow 
himself to be depressed on the question of our 
finances, or be terrified by the bugbear of repudiation, 
when the annual product of our mines alone amounts 
to $150,000,000 per annum, a sum equal to five per 
cent, of the whole debt, if it should swell to $3,000,- 
000,000. Or, to look at it in another light, the actual 
increase of our wealth for 18G3 was $3,719,000,000, four 
per cent, of which will pay the interest of the national 
debt. That is to say, if our annual profits hereafter 
should equal that of the year 1833, then four per cen- 
tum of our annual profits will pay the annual interest 
of five per cent, on $3,000,000,000 and leave our vast 
cajiital entirely untouched. 

»Said I not truly, “The Lord has done great things 
for us?” And do you not join me in saying, with the 
Royal I^salmist, “We are glad?” 

(5.) The only other “ great thing” of the many 
which “ the Lord has done for vsf that I will mention 
at this time, and for which we should “ be glad,” is, 
that God has not given up the nation to hatred of our 
enemies, and to a desire for revenge. The nation, 
the Government, the people have been delivered from 
a desire for mere retaliation. A reverend doctor at 
Norfolk, Va., said to a Presbyterian clergyman, a 
friend of mine, “ We of the South hate you.” My 
friend replied, “Then I pity you, for we do not hate 
you, but love you and pray for you.” “ The country," 


yy 


) 20 A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


said our worthy President, Abraham Lincoln, “ will 
do every thing for safety, nothing for revenge.” In 
that sentence he struck the key-note of the national 
feeling. We will do nothing for mere revenge. 

It is “ a great thing” that God has given to us, at 
this time, rulers who acknowledge him as the Su- 
preme Wisdom and the Supreme Power in our na- 
tional affairs; who believe that he is '■'‘King of kings 
ami Lord of lords, and the only lluhr of princes f 
and who consider themselves as holding tlie Govern- 
ment under him, and consequently accountable to 
him for their otHcial as well as tlieir private acts. 
Let us thank God for rulers who urge the people to 
give him the praise of our conquests, and to plead 
with him for his sanctifying grace in our reverses. 

In evidence of this, see the various proclamations 
of our honored Chief Magistrate, calling for fasting 
and prayer and humiliation to deprecate the Divine 
wrath, and for thanksgivings for his mercies and 
blessings. The same spirit pervades the proclama- 
tions of many of the Governors of States and other 
executive civil officers, as well as the official dispatches 
and general orders of many of our generals and corps 
commanders in the held, announcing their successes 
and reverses. A marked illustration of what 1 mean 
on this point is found in a note from the Secretary 
of War to one of the daily papers of New York, in re- 
ply to an article adulatory of his acts : 

“Much has recently been said of military combina- 
tions and organizing victory. I hear such phrases 
with apprehension. They commenced in infidel 
France with the Italian campaign, and resulted in 
Waterloo. Who can organize victory? Who can 
combine the elements of success on the battle-field ? 
We owe our recent victories to the Spirit of the Ijord, 
that moved our soldiers to rush into battle, and filled 
the hearts of our enemies with terror and dismay. 
The inspiration that conquered in battle was in the 
hearts of the soldiers, and from on high ; and wherever 
there is the same inspiration, there will be the same 




A IlOrEFUL VIEW OK NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 21 ^ 


results. Patriotic spirit, with resolute courage in 
ollicers and men, is a military combination that never 
failed. 

“We may well rejoice at the recent victories, for 
they teach us that battles are to be won now and by 
us in the same and only manner that they were ever 
won by any ]>eople, or in any age, since the days of 
Joshua, by boldly pursuing and striking the foe.” 

A still more public illustration presents itself to the 
people in the motto adopted in our new issues of notes 
and coins, viz., “IN GOD WE TRUST,” which is 
also the sentiment of our national anthem. 


“ Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. 

And this be our motto, IN GOD IS OUR TR(JST !” 

Adopt this motto for your own. Let God be your 
God, and his word be your guide, and then — 

“Stand like the firmament, upholden 
By an invisible, but Almighty hand! 

lie whomsoever JUSTICE doth embolden. 
Unshaken, unseduced, unawed, shall stand. 

Invisible support is mightier far, 

With noble aims, than walls of granite are; 

And simple consciousness of justice, gives 
Strength to a purpose, while that purpose lives. 

“Stand, like the rock that looks defiant 

Far o’er the surging seas that lash its form ! 

Composed, determined, watchful, self-reliant. 

Be master of thyself, and rule the storm 1 

And thou shalt soon behold the bow of Peace 
Span the broad heavens, and the wild tumult 
cease ; 

And see the billows, with the clouds that meet. 
Subdued and calm, come crouching to thy feet.” 

Then, amid the joys of conquest, and the hopes of 
future tranquillity, w'e can exultingly exclain with the 


22 A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 


Psalmist, “THE LORD HATH DONE GREAT 
THINGS FOR US,” whereof 


II. “ WE ARE GLAD.” 

A'es, we are glad that God is our Friend, the Patron 
of our nation. This first, last, best, “God is with 
us.” Jehovah, of Hosts is with vs, the God of Jacob is 
our refuge.'^ 

We are glad that a spirit of loyalty and of true pa- 
triotism animates our people. We are glad that suc- 
cess has crowned our arms, thus far, on land and sea; 
that victory has perched on our banners ; and that 
our people are hopeful of the future. 

We are glad that God has chosen to make this na- 
tion a co-laborer in the good work of extending the 
area of human liberty, and of transmitting its rich 
blessings to future ages. 

Y We are glad that our resources are so ample; that 
our people are not revengeful ; that our rulers express 
such an abiding trust and confidence in God, and that 
this sentiment is everywhere circulated with the cur- 
rency and the coin of the realm. 

We are glad that our Chief Magistrate invites the 
people to the mercy-seat, because the word of God 
declares Happy is the people that is in such a case. 
Yea, happy is that people whose God is the LordY 

But we are glad, above and beyond all, that our 
cause is the cause of justice, of humanity, of truth. 
The cause of the oppressed against the oppressor, of 
the poor against those who in their desire for power 
have laid down the villainous proposition that capi- 
tal should own labor, who would make merchandise 
of both body and soul. We are glad that we are bat- 
tling (since we must fight) for the right, for the true, 
for the good, for the freedom with which Christ makes 
his people free; for deliverance from every form of 
political despotism and the breaking of every yoke. 
We are glad that in this particular we find ourselves 
in company with the truly patriotic of our previous 
history. Washington in 1786 wrote to John F. Mer- 


rCn 

A HOPEFUL VIEW OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 23 


cer, of Maryland, “ It is among my first wishes to see 
some plan adopted by which slavery in this country 
may be abolished by law.” Jefferson said, “ Tlie ab- 
olition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire 
in these colonies, where it was unhappily introduced 
in their infant state.” And again, Almighty has 
no attribute which can take sides with vs in such a con- 
jilcty' i. e., for the support of the master against the 
slave, in the event of sucli a conflict. 

We stand, then, with Washington and Lafayette, 
with Jefferson and Jay, with the Adamses, with Hamil- 
ton, and with James Monroe, all of whom, while they 
contended for the largest liberty for the largest num- 
ber, also scouted the idea of any foreign interference 
in our affairs; who trusted for the future preservation 
of our government to GOD, to JdSTICE, and to their 
own right arms ; and who sought to perpetuate the 
blessings of the Union, Liberty, and Peace which they 
themselves enjoyed, so that thev might be transmit- 
ted, uutrammeled, untainted, and in all their integrity, 
to the very remotest generations of their posterity. 

Here, then, on the principles announced by the 
fathers of our Republic, imbedded in the Constitution, 
preserved in our laws, and maintained by the patriots 
of other days; here, on Bible ground, and on the 
corner-stone of human liberty, we take our stand. 
Our purpose. No step backward. Our motto, “ In God 
WE TRUST.” Our hope, the restoration of ]>eace, the 
integrity of our Union, the harmony and good will of 
ovxv whole people,, North and South, and East and West. 
And the blessing and favor of Almighty God, through 
his Son Jesus Christ, who, as the King of providence, 

I ^^liath done great things for us, whereof we are gbidT 







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